Sins of the Father
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: A cruel twist of fate at birth gave him the path to greatness. A single act of uncompromising hatred during Pain's Invasion ruined any chance of that forever. Now with his seal dying, will Naruto possibly survive? AU. Dark! NarutoxHinataxFemKyuubi!


**_Speechless_**

It came as less a surprise, more a relief, when Naruto's mind finally removed itself from the madness.

At first, anyway.

His first clue that he had returned from the land of nightmares came when darkness truly fell. The visions evaporated, and the voices went with them. For a very welcome period, there was nothing to see or hear, or even think. He could just rest, and be. He did not have to think of Pain's words, nor did he have to concern himself with the brutal stabbing of Hinata, that he had witnessed before his very eyes.

**"Kill."**

Then new noises began to intrude on the peaceful silence: the whirring of rustling cloth, low-pitched whispers and murmurrs from someone, a fizzing, spitting noise that could have been running water, and other sounds that had no place in his serenity. His heart rose at the sound of laughter rising above the others. The faint sticking point between each cycle was horribly familair.

**"Kill them."** A dark voice urged suddenly, emerging from the blackness.**"Kill all those who would hurt you!" **Dimly, he recalled them. The words of the Kyuubi, then those of Pain, the leader of Akatsuki who had destroyed the village. Ah, now he remembered. He remembered the stabbing and the fury that came with it. He remembered the blood red haze and the squeezing, relishing in the desperate last gasp as he wrenched the life from the orange-haired man's body.

That was _all_ he remembered, he realized. The rest, was a blur. He couldn't remember if he'd even heeded Pain's edict; because he barely even recalled it. He knew only the all consuming rage had indeed consumed him for a second time and thrust him into his current predicament. He hung here, suspended in the darkness, and remembered a killing among killings, of that much, he was certain. Both Pain and the woman who had identified herself as Konan, were now no more.

Then were did that leave him?

Suddenly, he had the strangest sensation of being...held.

Someone was screaming; a high pitched, incoherent, sobbing scream that trailed off and then started up again.

"STOP!" He could feel hands tugging at his shoulders, pulling him, restraining him. In his fury, he, his body, rounded on her. There was a wet squelching sound as a blazing hand of chakra struck her cheek. What was this? What was happening to him? What was happening to his body? Why was he still fighting? Why was he risking harm to those around him? Why, why why why...

Naruto raged against invisible bonds to move limbs he couldn't feel. The babble of noises faded for a moment, then returned, this time with light and sensation accompanying it. The head of a massive kitsune swelled before his vision, encompassing his entire existence in a single instant. Then the rest of the world swam dizzyingly into focus. He was strapped prone to the floor in the middle of an operating theater. Multicolored threads of chakra wires ran from several places in his body stationed around him, and stretching up to the high ceiling of the seal above.

**"You are mine now."** The voice laughed; it was a deep, throaty sound. **"You belong to me now, boy."**

"Let go of me!"

**"Never."** The voice pitched into a strange pur and the sickly cords of brackish red drew their host inexorably closer. **"Never again."** Mightily, did Naruto struggled, but it was all for naught; the more he strained, the weaker he became. **"Do you have any idea how many times I've saved you up until now? Too many! Far too many for my liking, and yet I never once said a word! But now, NOW you suddenly seek to rely on your own power?**

**"To push me away, after all I've done for you?" **For a moment, the cords of wrathful chakra loosened, feeling less like an actual manifestation of the Kyuubi's will than an intense, visceral heat. For a moment, just a moment, Naruto dared to believe that he might be freed. He strained against his shackles and felt them bend; yielding toward his touch despite the intense pain they caused. For what felt like an eternity, he thought he might escape this hellish prison and its saddistic jailor.

**"No."**

Then they tightened around his neck like a noose.

**"Does that wench truly mean so much to you,"** The kitsune began in a voice more hoarse then gravel, **"That you'd forsake me, Naruto?"** He didn't have the chance to answer; because a wave of killer intent crashed down on him and muffled his words before he could even hope to speak. **"You would cast me aside so thoughtlessly and not for wealth, not for power, but for... for..._some human bitch!"_**

Naruto tried to speak, to voice his confusion. He really did. His distress was palpable, even, almost pitiable really.

Then a different force gripped him, one no less powerful than the first, but aimed at him, not anything else. It gripped Naruto cruelly about the throat and lifted him so his feet barely touched the ground. He snarled in defiance and squirmed anew. The force gripped him even more tightly, closing his windpipe. Naruto choked, kicking out and finding no ground at all beneath him now. Forced to cease the struggle, his hands pulled at his throat, but the chakra was implacable, and there was no way to fight it.

**"I won't let her have you." **the biju snapped, its voice little more than a harsh click. **"I won't let anyone have you."**

Naruto could barely even see the figure beyond the bars. Black spots were crowding out his vision as his oxygen-starved optic nerves began to fail and falter. He simply had no hope of escaping, not from it; not from this imperturpable vice that threatened to asphixiate him at any moment.

**"We'll be together now, you and I."** Renewed, the voice took on an eerie, frantic edge. **"Won't it be wonderful?"**

He was about to truly despair when a quiet voice like liquid leaked into his thoughts.

_"He doesn't belong to anyone."_

**"What?"** Indignation leached through the bars, and dismay from the blonde's face. **"Just now, was that...no." **The last part emerged as a forlorn whisper. Abruptly, its tone pitched, its words edged first with confusion, then despair, then a sadness so intense that it was almost painful to witness. **"No, no, NO! Damn you! Curse you! Not now! I was so close, I needed only a moment more and then...NO!"**

_"He belongs only unto himself." _The voice that was oh so terribly familair pressed, taking shape, assuming form. Taking the shape of a man who was distant, and at the same time terribly familair. Something flared and incredibly golden, milky white, and then, for a terrifying instant, all sound ceased to exist. Then the Kyuubi screamed; spitting fire and brimstone and soot as events unseen occurred just beyond the bars.

There was a terrible rending shriek that came from beyond those bars.

**"Gah!"** The Kitsune howled aloud, shattering the silence with its distress. **"Minato!** **Curse you! What have...**_you done to me?" _As one, the coils of chakra that surrounded Naruto, drooped. He crashed to the damp floor, becoming intimate with the earth in a way that no self-respecting shinobi wanted; let alone deserved. And yet, he somehow found it in himself to scrape his chin up off the floor and peer forward at the unusual scene unfolding before him.

"I've tweaked the seal." The ghostly white chakra outline replied in answerment_. _"You won't be able to influence my son, not anymore."

_"Son?"_

The man turned, and Naruto felt the rest of his words die on his lips.

He knew that face.

It was the face of the Yondaime Hokage.

But before Naruto could even begin to think of what he might say to the man that was his father, everything began to collapse. He was still aware of a woman's voice, existing on the fringe; in the outskirts of his mind. They'd been eerily prescent in the background until only a moment ago.

They were quieter now, a series of gulping sobs. And yet they were strangely comforting. The murky black prescence that was the seal, recoiled. It drew itself up and away, in its haste to escape the burgeoning strength that those sobs brought with them. And yet it could not escape with its host. Tendrils of light plucked at the strands of shadow and chakra that held Uzumaki Naruto; neatly severing them one by one until at last, the ties that bound were no more.

He felt the sounds of the seal leaving him, being replaced by those of the real world.

"Naruto-kun...don't leave me...No! _Naruto-kun! Wake up! Please! Wake up!" _Whomever they were, surely they didn't know. Surely they remained unaware, as the lids of both his eyes flickered, didn't know he could hear. But who on earth added that affectionate suffix to his name? He was so close, terribly, terribly close to recalling their identity, in that very moment, one of two things happened.

First, he remembered.

Then, he became unaccountably angry; not only with himself, but the Akaktsuki.

How dare they use him to create such a travesty. How had he let this happen? He edged his conciousness closer. He could see a body in the grass now. He could see light lavender colored eyes, a, dirt-caked face, and a cream-colored jacket that was terribly, terribly tattered. And now he was close enough to see the face with the mouth wide open. Something stirred deep within him as he drew nearer to her. A woman. The woman had her arms folded tight across her chest and she was embracing him for all she was worth, terribly unaware that his eyes had just creaked open, for her own were still squeezed tightly shut.

She was sobbing.

It was Hinata Hyuuga.

Naruto recognized her and_-surprisingly-_had an epitome. She was crying for his sake, not her own. She thought he was dead. Hinata's face was wet. From the tears or the rain, he couldn't tell. She was holding him. He could smell her. When he opened his eyes he could see her _right there,_ so close to him that he almost seemed a part of her. His head pressed firmly against hers.

"Na-Naruto-kun?"

He closed his eyes and realized his face was wet too, although perhaps not only from the rain. He reached up and touched her cheek, felt her start and almost pull away. Their eyes met and, despite the pain, despite the uncertainty and the butterflies fluttering within his gut, he smiled. It was just a smile, but that smile, so simple and erroneously odd in its complexity, left Hinata Hyuuga utterly speechless.

Weightless, impossible, miraculous, there were no words for how she felt in that instant. Time had rolled back and so many wrongs had been righted, just by being here, now, with him. She stared at him for what felt like an eternity, a myriad of different emotions-anxiety sorrow anger relief joy-flitting across the features of her face. Eventually her expression composed itself, settling upon an emotion that Naruto didn't quite recognize; because it flared Hinata's cheeks a fierce and flushing scarlet. Suddenltm she pulled herself up and did the the impossible.

She kissed him.

She pulled herself up and kissed him properly, without fear, without regret, and without the smallest doubt that it was the most perfect thing to do in that moment. If Naruto had any intention of saying otherwise, that protest was likewise muted. Slowly, gingerly, he reached up a hand and cupped her cheek. Her eyes flew wide open and grew as wide as saucers when he abruptly broke the kiss and hauled her forward, embracing her.

He held her as though he planned never to let go.

"I heard you." He murmurred softly.

Hinata squeaked, but said nothing.

"Please," he whispered into her ear, lost broken, confused, and so very much aone. "Just...don't let go."

Hyuuga Hinata couldn't find the words to express how she truly felt in that moment. This was it. This was the moment she'd been waiting for, what she had hoped and prayed and yearned for most of her life. Now, it had just presented to her on a silver platter. She could feel the tears; brimming on the ledges of her eyes. Not tears of sorrow as they had been before, oh no, these were tears of _joy_ which the Hyuuga heiress cried.

"N-Never." She spluttered, somehow managing to divert the urge to faint. She opened her eyes and focused at a point just past him, silently wondering what would become of her beloved now, after the Kyuubi's vindictive rampage. Many lay injured or dying around them. The survivors surely weren't going to look kindly upon so many deaths. Not as kindly as they would have, as she had seen many dying men and women do.

But for now, it could wait.

In that moment, in that brief instant of time, nothing mattered. It mattered not that Konohagakure lay in ruins around them. Nor did it matter that the one whom she loved so very dearly, housed a demon inside of him, a demon that, if ever removed, would result in his death. A demon that, had its own plans for its host, plans that did not necesarily foster a friendly relationship, let alone than a rivalry.

And it certainly didn't matter that a squad of Anbu Black Ops had just surrounded the two of them. Actually, that did matter. Plucked from her euphoria by the sudden arrival of the infamous elite unit, Hinata felt her stomach seize with a sudden surge of dread. There were so many of them. Far too many for her liking, and her worse fears were only confirmed when one of the infamous masked members spoke:

"Uzumaki Naruto, by order of the council you are hereby placed under arrest for crimes against Konoha."

Naruto drew himself up on his knees and knelt a couple of meters from her, absolutely astonished.

_"What?"_

**A/N:Oh dear...this cannot end well. ENJOY! And don't forget to review until my ears fall off! Although, being a skeleton, I have no ears...SKULL JOOOOKE! YOHOHOHO! ****I know I may die from asking this so may times, but...REVIEW PLEASE! Then again...being a skeleton...I am already dead! SKULL JOOOOOKE! YOHOHOHO!**


End file.
